


Baby Steps

by aj_linguistik



Category: Accel World, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Alicization Spoilers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant Violence, F/M, Family Planning, Fluff and Angst, I made a complex plot of it, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spoilers, This was supposed to be fluff dammit, but here we are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2020-07-30 14:03:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20098381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: He's done with this reckless behavior. He wants to heal from his trauma. He wants to move on and live a nice, peaceful life with the love of his life. That's all he's wanted since the incident with Project Alicization. He wants to have the life and family he said he'd have with Asuna when they left SAO. All it takes is some restraint and acceptance that he's struggling.But when he gets a phone call from a familiar source, can he resist the urge to jump back in again? Is it worth it? And if he does take that plunge, will he still be able to have peace with Asuna?





	1. Adjusting to Home

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I got asked for a Kirisuna fluff piece and THIS happened. *sobs* If you're at all familiar with Accel World, I want to address something from that world that briefly got mentioned in volume 9 of SAO as well- the BIC. I don't want to spoil Accel World if you plan to read it, but if you DO know the BIC I'm sure you're reading this and going "AJ, I want to smack the hell out of you." 
> 
> There WILL be some cute Kirisuna in this, however. Since that was what I got asked for, that's what is mandatory for this fic! (Taylor I'm SORRYYYYY!) And since I noted family planning (since I keep going to that for cute fluff since I'm good at it), please note: I refuse to discard Asuna if/when they choose to have a kid in the fic. That's my disclaimer.

Several minutes after midnight, I finally dragged myself to the front door and tiredly waved my cardkey in front of the locking mechanism. A little red light told me I’d improperly held the card or something. Groaning, I tried a second time. This time, thankfully, the light was green. I grasped the handle and pulled the door open. The apartment sat in silent darkness. I shuffled inside, shutting the door quietly, and tossed my things on the couch.

Not caring to put anything away, I turned and ambled into the kitchen. I yanked open the fridge door and skimmed the shelves for something palatable at this time of night. Nothing caught my fancy, so I grabbed an egg roll and opted to just make myself a cup of tea really quickly. I munched on the egg roll without heating it. A mug from the draining rack served as an easy tea-holder, so I snatched it up, tossed in a bag of oolong tea, and filled up the water heater. In a couple of minutes, I had boiling water and was steeping the tea.

I finished up the egg roll. Since I didn’t want to drink straight tea, I dumped some sugar into the water and mixed in a little bit of soy milk. I sat myself down on the couch and started to rummage through my backpack. The notebook I was looking for was on the bottom. I groaned and slipped it out, turning the lamp on next to me to help me read. I took a sip of the tea and tried to focus on my notes. The words all looked blurry to me.

“Just let me focus…please…”

My desperate plea came out sounding like a cry. I couldn’t help it. I was only out and awake because I didn’t want to fall asleep. Some days were worse than others. There were days when I thought that I was over it all—the trauma, the nightmares. But on days, or rather nights, like tonight, my mind reminded me that I might never be free of the ghost that was the culmination of my rocky past.

Here I was, trying to build a life for myself despite the hard times I’d faced. Sure, I had friend and a support system. I didn’t know how to make use of them, though. The friends I’d made from my time in the death game all smiled and seemed fine. Yet here I was, shaking quietly on the couch at almost one in the morning, trying to sip tea and read mechatronics notes to calm myself down and erase the images of the lives I’d taken so long ago.

Suddenly, I felt arms wrap around me. Guilt tugged at my heart. I hadn’t meant to wake her up. Since we’d moved in together, I hadn’t once let Asuna see me like this. I wanted to put on a brave face for her. She pulled me to her. I set down the tea and curled up against her, feeling like a small child.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered.

I just numbly shook my head. Being honest with her was the best option now. If I wanted to live my life with her, she had to see the side of me that wasn’t a fictional hero in some game. I’d feared letting her see this vulnerable side of me, filled with mistakes and worries and uncertainties. But she didn’t seem mad or taken aback by this behavior. She just held me tightly in her arms and stroked my hair.

“I was getting worried,” she said. “You kept leaving bed in the middle of the night. I was wondering what was wrong.”

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” I mumbled.

She shook her head and ran her fingers through my hair again. I clutched her shirt in my hands. I tried to take a deep breath.

“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I think we’ve tried a little too hard to pretend we’re okay to each other. At some point after we met, we decided that our own problems weren’t ones that we wanted to burden the other with, but the truth is that we need to share with each other to heal.”

Even after saying that, I think she knew I didn’t want to talk. She helped me up and coaxed me into the bathroom to clean myself up. I didn’t feel like putting much on. I was emotionally exhausted and just opted for slipping into a clean pair of underwear after a quick shower. When I was done, Asuna made sure I came back into the bedroom with her.

We laid down on the bed facing each other. I didn’t want to look her in the eyes. She reached over and brushed some of my hair behind my ear. Her hand traveled down my cheek and rested on my chest, just above my heart. A smile finally appeared on her face. She pushed herself forward and kissed me.

“Feel a little calmer?” she asked.

I just nodded.

“Good,” she said. “Get some good rest, Kirito-kun.”

My eyes slipped closed as I mumbled “goodnight.” To my relief, it was a dreamless sleep. My mind and body rested without interruption from night terrors. When I woke up, I found myself tangled up with Asuna’s body, cuddling her gently. I smiled and carefully pulled her to me, embracing her as she slept.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

I don’t know how long I just laid there holding her as she slept. I didn’t want to move. This was a comfortable safe place. Although I chuckled as I thought about now versus when we’d met in SAO. She would have killed me on the spot for being pressed up against her like this. My laughter must have woken her up. She groaned and lifted her face off of my chest. I smiled at her. She smiled back at me.

“Breakfast?” I asked.

She shook her head and shoved her face back into my chest.

“Just a few more minutes,” she pleaded.

I wasn’t going to argue. I’d been awake for a bit longer than she had. I’d been here enjoying the simple joy of holding her close. Now, she wanted a chance to do the same. We hadn’t been able to do this alone for very long. It was only our third week in our new home. A lot of the reason we’d saved up and moved out was to be alone. But I think it was also a desire to take the next step in our relationship.

“What are you thinking about?” she hummed.

I shrugged.

“Oh, just life, I guess,” I said. “This is what we wanted, after all. To come to the real world and have a life together. To enjoy loving each other and someday grow old together.”

She nodded in agreement.

“All I wanted was to have a family with you,” she said. “And now, I have that.”

I felt my pulse quicken just a little bit. What did she mean by that? Logically, a family could be just a husband and wife. We weren’t legally married yet, but we planned to save up and finally tie the knot in the near future. But the way a lot of people used that term today, it usually meant that there were children involved. I awkwardly laughed.

“Yeah, I’m sure Yui would like a visit from us today,” I said. “It is Saturday.”

Don’t get me wrong—Asuna and I loved the idea of being parents. And I’d expressed interest in the future possibility of giving Yui a little sister to her before. But lately the idea almost felt like pressure. My mother had asked a few times if Asuna and I had been considering having a baby. Only after she started laughing at me had I realized my face was bright red with embarrassment. No way was I ready for that sort of thing.

Asuna hummed and rolled onto her back. I gazed at her. She had a funny look on her face. I suddenly remembered last night. I sat up and grasped her left hand. She turned her attention back to me, giving me a small smile.

“I’m sorry if I scared you last night,” I said.

The hope was that this would change the topic. It did not.

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s okay! But you’re diverting!”

“Diverting from…what?” I asked, trying to play stupid.

She gave me a look. She knew me well enough now to know when I was trying to avoid a topic. When I didn’t admit that I was trying to divert the topic, Asuna sat up and turned to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “And a part of it does have to do with last night. We both ended up feeling better after taking in Yui in SAO. Don’t you think that trying to take care of a child in the real world might help as well?”

I felt a pit form in my stomach. What was she saying? Yui wasn’t the same as a real child. Yui didn’t take nearly the same amount of responsibility that an actual baby did. Thinking about last night made it worse. I wasn’t mentally ready to deal with this sort of task. How could she find it helpful? She squeezed my shoulder.

“Kirito, you’ve always fared better when you had someone you felt like you had to protect,” she said. “Even though it can stress you out a little.”

Stress me out? That wasn’t even the bottom of it. There were people I’d said I would protect who didn’t make it. I instinctively grasped her arms and stared down at the bed between us. She let out a surprised sound.

“Kirito-kun?”

I shook my head.

“Sachi…Eugeo…” I stammered. “I…I can’t…”

_I can’t promise to protect someone and fail again._

The words just wouldn’t leave my mouth. I was so scared of my own failures that I couldn’t even verbalize them to the most important person in my life. How pathetic was that? Here she was, claiming that I’d be happier with someone to protect, when one of the things that kept me up at night was the fear of vowing to protect someone and watching them die yet again. I shook my head again.

“Kirito, you need to prove to yourself that you can,” she said. “But most importantly, you need to understand that you don’t have to hold yourself to that. You need to understand that we’re a team. You don’t have to do all of the protecting because I’m going to do it, too.”

I lifted my head and locked eyes with her. Those eyes screamed confidence. She believed not just in herself, but in _us_. While I was a mess, thinking that I would never be good enough to protect and raise a child, she had full faith in us as possible parents. She moved her hand from my shoulder and cupped my cheek with it. I leaned my head into her palm, taking a deep breath.

“Of course, I’m not going to force it,” she said softly. “If you think you’re not ready for a baby, we don’t have to try. I just think it would be good for us.”

I swallowed. It was obvious from the way she was saying this that she wanted a baby. The last thing I wanted to do was break her heart and tell her I needed more time. I let go of her arms and took her head in my hands. I pulled her close so that I could rest my forehead against hers. She stroked my cheek with her thumb.

“Let…let me think about it,” I said. “I don’t feel ready, but…”

“If you’re not ready, that’s okay,” she told me.

I shook my head.

“Just let me think it over,” I said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be ready. It’s a scary thought.”

She hummed.

“No matter when we choose to do it, I’m going to feel like I’m just not ready. So, let me think it over. Is that alright?”

Asuna nodded and wrapped her arms around me, tightly embracing me.

“There’s no rush. We can take our time thinking about it.”

Her words felt like sweet relief. I at least had a chance to really, truly think about it. I just hoped that I could come to the right decision with her. Our embrace ended, and I gave her an apologetic smile.

“Now—do you want some breakfast?” Asuna asked.

I laughed.

“I asked you that ten minutes ago!” I said.

She giggled, then leaned over and touched her nose to mine.

“But now we’re not cuddling,” she teased.

Suddenly, she leapt out of the bed and flashed me a playful grin.

“Bet you can’t get to the kitchen before me!” she said.

“Oi, no fair!” I said, scrambling out of the bed and dashing after her. “This is a small apartment and your side’s closer to the door!”

Laughing, I caught up to her just as she entered the kitchen space. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and planted a kiss on her neck. She gleefully announced her victory. I told her that her prize would be that I made her breakfast while she got to relax. She insisted we’d cook together, since we had the time. We set about getting everything ready for making omelets. Just as I grabbed out the milk carton, I heard my phone ring. I excused myself and walked into the hall to check the number. I grimaced, but I answered it nonetheless.

“What do you want?” I growled.

“Oh! Kirigaya! Good, you’re awake!”

I covered my eyes with my hand and sighed.

“Yeah, I’m up, and I’m making breakfast with Asuna,” I grumbled. “What do you want at this hour, Kikuoka?”

The man on the other end of the line seemed to completely ignore my implication that I wanted to be left alone to spend time with Asuna. After the whole Project Alicization incident, I’d made it a point to avoid Kikuoka Seijirou at all costs, but some tiny part of me always told me to pick up the phone. I gripped the phone tightly. Asuna didn’t know I was still in contact with him even to this extent. Guilt filled my belly.

“Are you perhaps interested in research on the Brain Implant Chip?” he asked.

I swallowed. I had two choices. I could tell him no, insist that I didn’t want to be bothered by him ever again, and go about my life trying to get into fulldive technology on my own merits through school. Or, I could say yes and possibly get enough money to support Asuna and myself and, if we chose to have them, our future children.

A little voice told me not to as I glanced back in Asuna’s direction.

But...

“Tell me what you want,” I said. “And then I’ll give you my answer.”


	2. Offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Trying to catch up on all of the updates I didn't do while moving and being out of state and doing my one-shot request event! Whoo!

The Brain Implant Chip—a small device no bigger than one’s thumbnail that was placed inside of the brain for user interface. It had the capability to help deal with various brain damage situations, from what I understood, but it was also usable for fulldive purposes and interfacing with other machines. It was, as Kikuoka outlined, the next step in fulldive technology, a step up from the Soul Translator.

“I want you to test a small program for it,” he said. “A video game, essentially, so that we can test the fulldive function of the B.I.C. and compare it to the vivid reality of the Soul Translator. As one of the few people who has been immersed for a long time in the Soul Translator, you would make a prime candidate for testing a game.”

I worked my jaw around. I really wanted to tell him no, even if the issue was tempting. I had Asuna to focus on. But her statement this morning made me feel like taking a job from the government wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I gritted my teeth.

“All you want me to do is test a simple game?” I asked. “That’s all?”

He hummed. I didn’t like the sound of that hum.

“We’d really like you to do a full beta test of it, if possible,” Kikuoka said. “And we’d be willing to pay you a generous sum of money to do so.”

I tapped my finger against the table.

“If I’m going to do this, I want full access to why you’re testing fulldive on a brain implant,” I said. “You never divulged everything to me with Project Alicization. And you never asked my permission to make me dive in there with my memories still intact.”

His unease was starting to seep through the speaker. He knew I wasn’t going to budge on this, even for a large sum of money. I wanted to be informed if I had to jump into another risky situation with this man. Before he could speak up again, I decided to make sure he understood that I wasn’t playing around.

“It isn’t just me I have to worry about anymore,” I said. “I have a family. If what you’re dragging me into puts me or my family in danger—”

He cut me off.

“Family?” he said. “Did you two get married?”

I felt a sour taste in my mouth. He was diverting.

“Just tell me whether or not you agree to my terms,” I said. “I want to be fully informed before you stick a device in my head and make me dive from it. Because I’m not putting Asuna through that again.”

There was an uncomfortable pause. I almost let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to agree, and I would be free of him because of that. I opened my mouth to tell him good day, but once again, he cut me off.

“Deal.”

My ears couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I blinked, staring at a point on the table.

“P-pardon me?” I said.

He sighed.

“I said ‘deal,’ Kirigaya,” he said. “I’ll give you access to all of the information on the project. I can’t afford to lose a valuable tester such as yourself. I’ll send you an encrypted e-mail with the location of your operation.”

I found it difficult to get words out.

“O…per…ation?”

“That’s correct,” he said. “From the obvious context, we need to place the B.I.C. in your brain. The procedure won’t harm any of your motor functions or other capacities, rest assured. We’ve already placed them in a few other testers’ brains. You’ll be perfectly fine. Our only request is that you don’t alert your friends or family about the device in your head.”

Right then, I pulled the conversation to a halt.

“You want me to have brain surgery and not tell Asuna?” I said. “I can’t just hide the fact that I had an operation done inside my head. It’s still an operation! It’s still a surgery! We sleep in the same bed!”

Kikuoka seemed unconcerned.

“Pass it off as a headache or something,” he said. “I’ll see you at the operation.”  
Without having the decency to even say good-bye, he hung up, leaving the line dead. The phone played the lost signal tone in my ear on repeat, reminding me that I’d just made another deal with the devil. I groaned and slipped my phone into my pocket. I had better things to worry about—like making breakfast with my girlfriend.

I ambled back into the kitchen. Asuna expertly flipped over an omelet and slipped it onto a plate. She turned back around, smiling brightly at me. My frustrations with Kikuoka dissipated like soap bubbles. I dashed over to her and wrapped her up in my arms, pulling her up close to me for a kiss.

“Kirito!” she said, giggling. “Who was on the phone?”

Biting my lip, I thought about what to tell her. Kikuoka had asked me to keep quiet about the Brain Implant Chip, but he hadn’t said I couldn’t tell her I was taking a job. I reached up and tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

“Someone called asking me to test some fulldive tech,” I said. “It pays…really, really well. I was thinking I’d take the job. You know. Just in case.”

For emphasis, I gently touched her belly. Her eyes widened a little.

“If we do end up trying to become parents, we’re going to need to be able to support that, right?” I said.

She smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Is that a ‘maybe’ I hear?” she teased.

I laughed.

“No matter when it happens,” I said, “I think nothing will make me happier than raising a little family with you.”

Her cheeks flushed red and her smiled seemed brighter.

“Well, then,” she said. “Just let me know when you’re ready.”

She handed me the plate with the omelet on it. I opened my mouth to protest. I’d been on the phone and hadn’t helped out one bit. But she adamantly steered me over to the table, sat me down, and handed me a fork. She resumed making her omelet and joined me a few minutes later. We said our thanks for the meal and then ate our breakfast/

“Was there anything you wanted to do today?” I asked. “I know we mentioned paying Yui a visit. Other than that, I don’t have too many notes to go over for the program I’m working on. I could use a break.”

Asuna hummed in thought.

“It might be nice to meet up with our friends down at Dicey Café,” she said. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen everyone. I had half a mind to invite Shino-non over. Do you need any kind of clothes for work while we’re out?”

I frowned. This wasn’t the kind of job where I needed to show up dressed really nicely. I’d never dressed all that formal with Kikuoka, since he usually stuck me in a hospital bed for fulldive testing. I always had to undress and slip into hospital gowns or at least sit shirtless on the bed. I lifted my coffee mug and took a sip.

“Maybe,” I said.

She raised her eyebrows, looking at me funny.

“You don’t really own too many nice shirts,” she said. “It’s settled, then. We’re going to get you some nice shirts.”

Regret filled my stomach. My hesitation had roped me into clothing shopping. I opened my mouth to protest. Asuna gave me a sharp look. I clamped it shut immediately. She was serious about this. There was no escaping my fate now.

“I’m not letting you walk into a new job looking like a walking blackboard,” she said.

I blinked at her, unamused.

“I don’t look like a walking blackboard,” I said.

“Kirito, you only have a few shirts that aren’t black,” she sighed. “Besides, you’d look very handsome in some nice dress shirts. You’re not getting out of this. Get some clothes on. It’s shopping day.”

“Soon as I finish my coffee,” I said.

She at least gave me time to do that. I finished up my drink, washed up our dishes, and then prepared myself for an outing. I made sure to make a point of not wearing all black, since she’d already teased me for that once today. We headed out to some of the stores downtown and shopped around for reasonably-priced, yet comfortable and nice-looking dress shirts. I couldn’t say that I didn’t feel a bit guilty for doing all of this when Kikuoka was going to probably strip me down anyways, but at least Asuna appeared to be having fun.

We stopped to grab lunch at a little fast food joint close to our apartment and took it home with us. Both of us were starving from our busy morning. We’d found six decent dress shirts, each one a different color. They were all flat color button-up shirts that would go nice under a blazer, which I already had at home. I chewed on my lunch and stared at a point in the wall. Asuna hummed.

“Kirito.”  
I looked across the table at her and smiled.

“Asuna.”

She reached over to grasp one of my hands.

“I haven’t really commented on it at all,” she said, “but I got really worried back starting before we were wrapped up in Project Alicization.”

I tilted my head.

“But lately, you’ve looked so good,” she said.

She got out of her chair and came over to me, crawling up into my lap. She wrapped her arms around me and held onto me tightly. I slipped my arms around her as well, leaning my head against hers.

“I do have you cooking most of my meals,” I said, laughing.

She giggled.

“Maybe I should be careful,” she said. “But I don’t think you’ve gained too much weight. You were just pretty underweight, and it got me worried. You’ve been looking much healthier the past few months. You’re finally filling out.”

Her hand traveled up my chest, over my cheek, and up into my hair. She pressed her lips into mine. As she pulled away, she gazed into my eyes. Hers sparkled with joy. I smiled back at her, feeling warmth in my chest.

“Problems like last night aside,” she asked, “are you feeling better?”

I gave her a nod and pressed my forehead up against hers.

“Being able to be with you makes me feel better,” I said. “Being close like this. Being able to live with you and see your smile. Knowing that you’ve got my back. There’s nothing better.”

She laughed and shook her head.

“I’m glad I can make you feel good,” she said. “You make me feel wonderful, too, Kirito-kun.”

Asuna ruffled my hair a little.

“Did you want to go and say hi to Yui now?” she asked. “I bet she’s eager to hear all about her papa’s new shirts.”

I chuckled.

“I don’t know if she’s all that excited about that, but yeah,” I said. “Let’s go talk to Yui. She deserves some of our attention. And who knows? Maybe she’d like to give input to help me with some of that, uh, decision-making.”

Asuna laughed and shook her head.

“You know she’s going to vote for being a big sister,” she said.

“Only one way to find out,” I said, winking at her.

We spent about two hours diving into ALO to talk to Yui. At some point, we took on a small quest, just as a family, since no one else was online. It was a great way to distract myself from the e-mail I knew was waiting in my inbox. After we logged out, Asuna went to make dinner and I opened it up, feeling my chest tighten.

Very little was in Kikuoka’s message. There was an address, one I was semi-familiar with from being in so much contact with him. There was a labeled time. He listed a few suggestions for what to wear, and then wrote me a good luck message at the bottom, which was cheery and definitely out of place in an e-mail telling me when I was going to get a device planted in my brain.

“Kirito-kun,” Asuna said.

I jumped a little and shut my laptop.

“Yes?”

She raised an eyebrow, glancing down at my computer.

“Dinner’s ready,” she said.

“I’ll be right in there! Let me wash up!” I told her.

She nodded and headed back into the dining room. I hurried to the bathroom, relieved myself, and then washed my hands. I caught my own gaze in the mirror and frowned. I really wanted to explain this to Asuna.

“Remember why you’re doing this…” I muttered.

I wasn’t going to get sucked into Kikuoka’s schemes this time. I wasn’t. This time was going to be different. I’d go in however many times he needed. I’d test this game. And then I’d be done with it. I’d ask him for a reference to get a job with a predictable company. Asuna and I would be safe and comfortable, and we’d have a kid.

“Just bear with it.”

I clenched my hands into fists on the sink counter.

“Bear with it, so Asuna can have her dream.”


	3. Earnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Not explicit from this chapter but...dangit I might have to tag this Accel World. allskgahla.

Standing outside of the location Kikuoka had sent me, I clutched my bag and swallowed. Asuna really was going to kill me if she found out about this. This was a sketchy-looking location, just like the RATH office, and he’d sent me here to receive a brain implant. I hoped the inside looked a lot better than the outside. I drew in a deep breath and pressed my finger into the buzzer.

“Aki Natsuki. Whom is calling?”

I let out a guttural noise hearing the name. The last person I wanted to deal with during a brain operation was her. Unfortunately, she recognized my voice based off of that noise alone.

“Kirigaya! Is that you? Come in!”

I groaned. The door clicked, signaling that it was unlocked for me to come in. I mentally issued another apology to Asuna and hurried in the door. I headed over to the reception desk to see Nurse Aki smiling over at me. She hopped out of the chair and came over to greet me. I gave her a polite bow only because it was expected. Her usual manner with me was unsettling.

“How have you been?” she said. “You’re definitely a miracle case.”

She reached over and ruffled my hair.

“That brain seems to be working just fine!” she said. “They were worried you’d never wake up.”

I swatted her hand away.

“I heard you moved in with your girlfriend,” she said. “Anything else exciting? School? Work?”

For some reason, I said the first thing that popped into my head.

“Uh, we’re, uh, trying for a baby, actually,” I said.

I clamped my hand over my mouth and felt my face heat up. Why did I say _that_? We weren’t officially trying yet. We were just thinking about it. I think somewhere deep in my brain, I thought that would help them weed me out of this if it were too dangerous. Instead, she steered me further down the hall.

“Awe! I wish you two the best of luck!” she said.

_Mistakes were made_, I thought to myself.

She pushed me into the room while giving me a series of “medical tips” on how to successfully get pregnant. I mostly tuned her out. This was a weird conversation. The room looked about as medically sound as any hospital, except for the fact that Kikuoka was standing near the operating table.

“Ah, Kirito!” he said. “I’m glad you’re on time!”

Groaning, I gave him a pointed look.

“I told you, it’s _Kirigaya_,” I said.

He nodded as if he understood and kept going.

“So, for today’s ‘initiation’ to the job, we’re going to be installing the Brain Implant Chip inside that head of yours!” he said. “It’s really simple. The device is relatively small, so once you’ve healed up, you shouldn’t feel it there.”  
I grimaced.

“That’s a relief,” I muttered. “Does it have a remote, then? I know you said over the phone that it was a fulldive machine, but how exactly does one dive into VR from a chip in their brain?”

He clapped his hands together.

“Ah! Asking the good questions already,” he said. “You’ll perform all actions through thought. No external manipulation from the hardware. You’ll be briefed on how to pull up augmented reality overlay and how to dive into virtual reality in order to perform the tests.”

“O-okay,” I stammered.

Kikuoka patted the table. I nervously climbed up onto it. A few medical people started to walk through the preparations for the operation. They explained how they’d be breaching my skull to implant the device, what kinds of tools and drugs they’d be using, and about how long it would take me to heal from the entire process. Right before they put me under, I wondered to myself if it was too late to back out now. Everything went dark.

“Kirito-kun?”

I glanced up at Asuna. She was staring at me, eyes wide with horror. She walked over to me and grasped my wrist. I was shaking. She pulled my hand away from the counter and pushed my back a few steps. She pressed on my hand just enough that I dropped the bottle in my hands. Asuna wrapped her arms around me.

“I know you don’t need that,” she said quietly. “If you need help sleeping, let’s get you some tea, okay? Those aren’t meant to help you sleep.”

She pulled me into the kitchen, pushed me down into a chair, and told me not to go anywhere. She made up a cup of tea with a blend that was supposed to help you go to sleep. After putting a bit of honey into it, she sat it down in front of me. I numbly reached over and wrapped my hands around the cup. I stared down into the drink, watching it ripple as my body continued to shake.

“Can you calmly explain what happened?” she asked.

We’d done this a few times since moving in together. She was adjusting herself to dealing with my trauma just as much as I was adjusting to her working me through it. I worked my jaw for a moment, trying to encourage myself to speak. She knew sometimes I couldn’t. She wouldn’t force the issue if I was having a nonverbal moment.

“That street.”

It was all I could manage to get out, but she nodded at me.

“The street near my old house?” she clarified.

I nodded.

“Because we went there to talk to my parents?” she asked.

I nodded again.

“Next time let’s take a different route, okay?” she suggested. “If it makes you think about him, then we’ll just take a different route. But he’s gone now. You’ll be okay. It’s just you and me now, Kirito-kun. And I’ll protect you. Remember?”

All I could do was smile and nod. She came around and sat down next to me, snuggling up to me as I sipped the tea. Her warmth eased my tense spirit. I let my body lean up against her. Asuna turned and kissed my cheek. Everything was going to be alright. Things were going to get better from now on. I just knew it.

“Kirigaya?”

My head throbbed. It wasn’t a painful throbbing, though. I felt like someone had removed my brain and filled my skull with cotton. I opened my eyes just a crack. Kikuoka’s face was fuzzy in my vision. He smiled.

“Feeling okay?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Just…you’re all fuzzy,” I said, giggling.

He brushed past that.

“The anesthetics will wear off in a bit,” he said. “Then you’re free to go home. We’re going to monitor you for about a week before we perform the first dive. Do you have a joint account you’d like to deposit the check into, or your own personal account?”

I shoved my bangs out of my face and groaned.

“Uh, my personal account,” I said.

“Right, I’ll go ahead and sign your check then,” he said.

I reached out and grasped his arm clumsily. He gave me a funny look.

“Make sure it’s not obvious to Asuna that it’s from you,” I pleaded, too high off of the meds to filter that out like a decent person.

Kikuoka gave me a funny look but nodded his head. He left me there for a few minutes, groggy from the medication used to put me under. A doctor came over and reminded me where the chip had been inserted on the back of my head. He noted that he’d shaved a bit of my hair off to implant the chip. I hadn’t thought about that. I raised my hand to touch it, but he quickly told me not to.

“You mean I have to explain to Asuna why I got a haircut?” I sighed.

There was no way around it. I was offered a wig, which I was quick to turn down. That was even weirder than an impromptu haircut and surgical scars. At least Asuna wouldn’t just notice the latter. The haircut, though, I could maybe write off as a mistake. I decided I’d just handle it on my own time and hurried out of the room. In the main lobby, Kikuoka held the check out to me.

“I hope this is worth the paycheck,” he said. “A week from today, just meet back at the RATH office. Don’t make any attempts to dive until you’re in the office. Feel free to play around with the AR functions, though, to familiarize yourself with the B.I.C.’s interface.”

I took the enclosed check and frowned. I felt nervous. I thanked him for paying me and promised that I’d be on time next week. My feet went on autopilot, guiding me out into the street once again. After I’d walked a little way from the building, I stopped in my tracks, looked around, and then opened the envelope. I thrust my hand into the opening and pulled out the check, staring down at the numbers. A weird noise escaped from my throat.

“Oh my god…” I breathed. “That’s a lot!”

The check quivered in my hands. A lot was…quite a lot. My doubt was suddenly drowned out. Spurned on by the urge to show Asuna, I hurried home, forgetting my reservations. Perhaps I could blame it on the anesthetics. The train wouldn’t go fast enough. My legs couldn’t carry me fast enough. Street lights were too slow. My body was too slow. It took ages just to get to our apartment, but when I got there, I threw open the door.

“Asuna!” I exclaimed.

I kicked off my shoes and hurried into the living space. She was sitting on the couch. She was just sitting down her phone when I entered the room. Asuna hopped up to her feet and smiled, giggling at my energy. Frankly, I was a bit _too_ energetic for someone who’d just had a brain operation. I scrambled over to her, tossing my bag on the floor and thrusting the check out to her. I almost slipped on the wood floor, having forgotten to put my slippers on.

“They paid you already?” she asked, taking the check.

Her eyes bugged a little when she saw the amount.

“We could afford it!” I said.

She lifted her head up and gave me an inquisitive stare. I reached over and grasped her hands. She blinked at me. I just nodded at her. My brain was going faster than my mouth could. Her eyes widened a little.

“Are you serious?” she asked.

I nodded again.

“Yes, I’m dead serious,” I said.

I squeezed her hands.

“Asuna. Let’s do it. Let’s have a baby.”

She laughed.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asked. “I’m happy you want to, but that was a quick turnaround. Was the cost what was bothering you?”

“I want our kid to grow up provided for,” I said. “And if this is the kind of paycheck, I’m starting with…we can do that. If that’s what you really want, we can do it.”

She bit her lip, trying to hold back a smile.

“You’re sure?” she said.

I gave her a smile.

“I’m positive.”

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me deeply. I pulled her into my chest and leaned into the kiss. She clutched my shirt. Before I knew what she was doing, we were already falling back onto the couch. I laughed. She snuggled up on top of me, radiating so much joy that I wrapped my arms around her tightly, wanting to share in that joy.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“You’re going to be such a good papa,” she said, humming.

I played with her hair.

“You’re diverting,” I said teasingly.

She ruffled my hair in return, then lifted her head to look down at me. There was a playful look on her face.

“We’ve got work to do, Kirito-kun!” she said.

“R-right now?” I said, laughing.

She slipped her hands up my shirt and kissed me again. I sat up a little.

“Mm…don’t you want dinner first?” I said.

Shaking her head, she pushed me back down onto the couch and kissed me more passionately. I tried not to laugh at her eagerness. I had a feeling this would have happened without my declaration. I managed to keep it to a small chuckle as I consented to her desire. For now, I was allowed to forget about Kikuoka and this questionable chip in the back of my skull.

We were just two lovers, blissfully unaware of the danger sitting right in our home.


	4. Surprisingly Little Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm updating the tags. Oof. Because I made some decisions. (Finally haha). I think I totally didn't make it clear enough this isn't RIGHT after Alicization- it's several years later. I'm trying to think of if I should make adjustments to the first three chapters to make that more apparent. They are NOT in their early twenties already thinking about baby-making. Ha ha ha...oops.

It’s one of those things where you forget time passes. Our lips touched, our tongues met, our bodies pressed up against one another. We were so caught up with one another that we missed the phone ringing. It must have been buzzing on the nightstand, but neither one of us cared to pay it any mind. Ever since Kikuoka had handed me the check for simply getting the B.I.C., we’d had one thing on our minds while I waited for me next work call. Neither one of us knew much about the particulars of when or how was best to make a baby, but I don’t think she was going to complain about having a lot of sex.

He was taking a while to get back to me. The last I’d heard was that he was giving me “proper time” to heal from the operation. He’d attached a basic information packet including the specs of the device, which naturally told me nothing about whatever VR world I’d be diving into to test. Even so, he paid me for practically nothing. He kept sending a periodical check in the mail. So, most of my time was spent like this when Asuna wasn’t at work.

Since we missed any phone calls, we remained in bed, indulging in one another, until a brash knock on our front door made us both snap out of it. We glanced at each other and then at the doorway. Asuna groaned and reached over to grab the phone around my head.

“Were we expecting someone?” I mumbled.

“Uh, yeah, Shinonon’s at the door…” she said.

Now it was my turn to groan.

“I am _literally_—”

“Kirito, I’m gonna get up, quickly clean myself up, and meet her at the door, okay?” she said.

I pouted but agreed. We untangled ourselves and she hurried off to clean up. When she was done, I dragged myself into the bathroom to clean up as well. I hurried into the hall while I was pulling my pants on and saw Shino staring over at me. She covered her eyes when she realized I was still pulling pants on.

“W-were you guys having sex?!” she cried.

Asuna turned and gave me a look as I zipped up my pants. I mouthed my apology.

“Um, more importantly, Shinonon,” she said. “Where were you wanting to go today? You said it was a big surprise.”

Shino shook her head, and then she slowly removed her hands from her eyes. She sighed in relief when she noted that I was properly wearing pants now. I awkwardly waved at her. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Asuna.

“Yeah, there’s a new karaoke place downtown, and I’ve managed to get in touch with everyone to meet up there!” she said. “I’m hoping you’re up to it. It was difficult to get everyone together.”

Asuna and I shared a nod.

“What are we waiting for?” I asked.

Both women gave me a pointed look.

“Kirito-kun, we need you to put a shirt on,” Asuna said.

“OH.”

I hurriedly vanished to go and put on a shirt. After they were certain I was fully dressed, we headed downtown on the train to get to the new karaoke spot Shino had mentioned. It didn’t take very long for us to get there, but it felt like ages. The last time I’d seen everyone all in one place in person was a few years ago when we met up to go to a theme park. We’d tried something last weekend, but that fell through when Asuna and I ditched to go dive with Yui.

The karaoke place was about a ten-minute walk from the train stop. We didn’t mind it, but again, I was so eager to see everyone I picked up my pace. Asuna and Shino complained a bit about me wanting to speed-walk. Shino reminded me that I didn’t know the way to the spot, so I ended up reluctantly hovering behind the women as they walked. My excitement returned when we finally arrived and stepped inside. We were the last ones there.

“Hey! Kirito!”

“Klein, is your ugly mug still hanging out with kids?” I jabbed.

Klein chuckled and gave me a high five.

“Kids? You’re twenty-nine, you old fart!” he said.

“God, don’t remind me,” I said. “I’m totally gonna outdo you tonight.”

He scoffed.

“In your dreams,” he said. “I’ve been practicing Yuna’s songs every day since they were released!”

“Not gonna lie, that’s a bit weird,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

The ladies made sure to get out attention back so we could get a booth. We filed in and took our seats. Agil obviously ordered a round of drinks for everyone, but I was focused on the food options. I selected what looked tastiest and pulled my attention away from food to talk to my friends.

“Gosh, it’s been such a long time!” Rika said. “Like, is that a grey hair?”

She reached over to mess with my bangs.

“Wha—no way! No there is not!” I protested.

Keiko chuckled.

“She’s just saying that because she found her first one recently and texted me in a panic,” she said. “You don’t have any obvious grey hairs, Kirito.”

“You did gain weight, though,” Shino noted.

Asuna laughed.

“He looks good, doesn’t he?” she said.

She wrapped her arms around me and smiled. I hugged her back. Recently she’d been commenting on my weight a lot. I think she was worried back when we were teenagers. But I think even now, her vision was a little skewed. Because she’d seen me at my worst, I think she exaggerated how small I was in her mind.

“Seriously, what do you feed this guy?” Rika laughed.

She reached over and smacked me in the stomach, making me jump a little.

“Don’t be rude, Lis!” Keiko exclaimed.

“I’m not!” she said, still laughing. “But he’s got a little gut! It’s kind of weird! I’ve always seen you as a skinny little bean pole and now you got a bit of pudge.”

She jokingly rubbed my stomach.

“You got a baby in there?” she asked.

“I haven’t gained _that_ much weight,” I grumbled.

The group just laughed. There were a few comments on what food I’d ordered when our meals arrived. All it took was a meaningful glance from Asuna to make them all clam up about my weight and switch gears to karaoke. Our party was just as lively as ever. We sang. We danced. We shared work stories and the like. I’ll admit that I started getting tipsy after a while.

“You lightweight,” Klein chuckled.

“N-nonsense,” I said, almost whining. “I’m fiiiine.”

Asuna laughed and patted my shoulder.

“You _do_ dance more when you’ve got alcohol in your system,” she said.

I put my arm around her and leaned my head against her. I guess I did feel a little loose. She turned and gave me a kiss. The others made some mock disgust noises. Agil just laughed. His marriage was still going strong—he understood the sentiment. Asuna ruffled my hair, gave me another kiss, and then sat back and made a funny face.

“You okay?” I asked.

She bit her lip.

“I just need to go to the restroom right quick,” she said.

Abruptly, she hopped up and scurried off to the bathroom. I frowned. I took a long swig of my beer. If it was something serious, Asuna would pull me aside. Now wasn’t the best time to go play concerned husband when public restrooms were in the picture.

“What was _that_ expression, do you think?” Rika asked.

Shino hummed.

“I think her stomach’s bothering her,” she said. “She looked a little sick to me.”

I promptly choked on my drink. Rika let out a most undignified giggle.

“Kirito, did I say something weird?” Shino asked.

“I…I need to go check on her!” I said.

Everyone gave me a funny look as I pulled myself out of my seat to stagger out to the hallway and locate Asuna. By the time I was able to get over to her, she was exiting the bathroom. She noticed me and gasped. She hurried over to me and put her hands on my shoulders, sighing.

“How much did you drink?” she asked. “Jeez, Kirito…”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She tilted her head, as if I’d asked her something unusual.

“Sinon said…you looked a little sick…” I mumbled.

Asuna hummed and then started giggling. She kissed my cheek and shook her head.

“I’m fine,” she said.

She ran her fingers through my hair. A strange, beautiful smile appeared on her face. I’m sure the expression I was giving her in return was rather stupid, but I couldn’t help myself. I reached up and brushed some of her hair away from her cheek.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said. “You’re practically glowing.”

Her cheeks burned a little red at the statement. She glanced around me, checking to see if we were alone.

“Kirito.”

“Hmm?”

She grabbed my hand and pressed it against her stomach. I raised my eyebrows. She grasped my head again and pressed her forehead and nose up against mine. Our eyes met. Hers were so full of joy that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

“You’re going to be such a good papa,” she said.

I swallowed.

“W-we’re parents?” I stammered.

She nodded. I wrapped my arms around her and placed a kiss on her cheek.

“I love you so much,” I said, starting to choke up. “You’re going to be a good mama, too!”

Asuna laughed. I choked on a sob and placed my face in her shoulder.

“We’re gonna have a baby!” I cried.

She kept laughing and rubbed my back.

“You really are drunk, aren’t you, Kirito?” she asked.

I went to nod my head. But when I moved, something strange happened. I adjusted my position and noticed that my body itself hadn’t moved. I mean, I only knew that because I was staring at my arm, still wrapped around Asuna, when I knew I’d just pulled it back. I let go of her and stepped back. No, that wasn’t quite right. I was staring at myself hugging Asuna.

“What…what the hell?” I stammered. “Man…I did…drink too much…”

“Oh, there you are.”

I jumped and staggered backwards. Apparently, my dissociation was just as drunk as my physical body was. I yelped when I passed right through my own body and Asuna’s. Another figure stepped through us and crossed his arms. He was chuckling. I felt my stomach drop. Or was that really my stomach? The face I was looking at unnerved me.

It was my own.

“Long time no see, Kirito.”

* * *

Kirito’s body went limp. Asuna rolled her eyes.

“Seriously, how much did you drink?” she muttered.

She did her best to stand him back up, but when she looked at his face, she could tell something wasn’t right. His eyes looked vacant, as if he wasn’t really there. His body started to fall over. She caught him and eased him down on the floor. She patted his cheek.

“Kirito?”

Her heart started to race. She looked down the hallway.

“Help! Somebody! Kirito’s not responding!”

Her friends sprung out of the booth all at once. They crowded around him, staring at him with horrified expressions. Shino stooped down and checked his pulse. She glanced up at Asuna and frowned.

“I mean, he’s alive,” she said quietly.

“I’ll go call an ambulance!” Keiko said.

Just as she turned to run off, Kirito’s hand shot up and grasped Asuna’s tightly. She let out a scream. He gasped and dug his fingers into her wrist. His eyes spelled panic. He sat up abruptly and stared at her, as if confused.

“Where…where are we? How did you get there? What’s going on? Where’s Star King?”

“Kirito, you’re not making any sense…” Asuna said.

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Did you hit your head, maybe? Back in the booth?” she asked him. “What’s your name?”

“Kirito.”

She shook her head.

“No, no, what’s your NAME?” she asked.

He knit his eyebrows together frustratedly.

“Silica, definitely call that ambulance,” Agil said.

Keiko nodded and hurried off.

“Kiri…Kirigaya…Kazuto…” he stammered.

“Good, when’s your birthday?” Asuna asked.

Kirito shook his head and grit his teeth, letting out a frustrated whine.

“Where is he? He was just right here…”

Asuna frowned. This didn’t look like one of his panic attacks. Something else was going wrong. She opened her mouth to ask him something else, but to her shock, Kirito suddenly fainted, flopping back over. She yelped and caught him before his head hit the floor. Her shoulders started to shake with a sob.

“KIRITO!”


	5. Acceleration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Couple of important notes.   
1) I haven't mentioned them wearing Neurolinkers previously. Um. Yeah. I get that's like MENTION THAT BEFORE. Oops. My b. *They're wearing Neurolinkers, for people with Accel World context, you know that if it's 2039, they're wearing them. For SAO-only peeps...I'll try my best to explain them after this chapter.*   
2) Disclaimer I guess: I haven't FORMALLY read any part of SAO including Star King and am kind of ad-libbing. If this will bother you, I am sorry. You shall not be forced to remain tethered here because I only have a few summaries of parts with him in it.   
3) Uh...major spoilers for Accel World??? xD

“Long time no see, Kirito.”

I stared back at the person across from me, wondering if this was some kind of a dream. He was clearly me, I guess—he has the same face, and he sounded like I did when I heard a recording of myself. In that respect, I found his voice extremely unpleasant. I took a wobbly step back away from him. He laughed and took another step towards me.

“Is that grey hair?” he asked.

He reached a hand over to touch me. Alarmed at the thought of someone who looked exactly like me getting this close, I staggered backwards a few steps and then fell right on my ass. He chuckled and shook his head.

“I didn’t even notice your weight until you fell over,” he said. “How long has it been on that side for you? I’d guess more than five years…there’s no way _this_ happened in that short amount of time.”

To my irritation, he squatted down and poked my gut.

“Are you done calling me fat?” I grumbled.

He put his hands up in surrender.

“My apologies,” he said. “We have quite a lot to cover and I’m hoping not to keep you here so long that Asuna notices something’s wrong.”

I squinted at him.

“This might sound like a dumb question,” I said, “but how do you know me again?”

He stood back up and ran his hand through his hair. I gave him an unamused look. Now wasn’t the time to preen hair. It was high time he explained this whole situation. Maybe I was just too drunk to really follow what was going on. He turned around and started to walk down the hallway.

“H-hey!” I shouted. “That’s not an answer!”

Placing his hands on the back of his head like some kind of anime boy, he turned his head and flashed me a grin. I awkwardly got up to my feet and started to wander after him, forgetting that I was having a strange out of body experience. I’d followed him for what felt like a few minutes before I realized the world didn’t look the same. It seemed to have a blue overlay, like everything but myself and this doppelganger was covered in a translucent blue layer of smooth plastic.

“Am I dreaming?” I wondered aloud.

“Quite the contrary,” he said, finally stopping in his tracks.

I rammed into his back and grumbled in irritation. He turned around to me like nothing of the sort had happened.

“You’re wide awake,” he said. “Your consciousness has been accelerated.”

That pit feeling returned to my stomach. That sounded familiar—just like Project Alicization. But I’d had to use the Soul Translator to even achieve acceleration. I wasn’t connected to anything that powerful right now—the only thing on my person that could perform a full dive was the Neurolinker around my neck.

No, wait, that wasn’t it. Sure, I had a Neurolinker on. Just about everyone did these days. They’d followed up the Augma as AR displays, but shocked the world with their ability to function as a full dive machine as well. But it wasn’t the only full dive machine on my person. I was also equipped with the Brain Implant Chip. I grasped my head.

“No…no, no, no…he said this was a full dive machine…” I mumbled. “There’s no way they put acceleration technology inside of my head…”

Sighing, the guy in front of me shook his head.

“Acceleration technology is also possible through your Neurolinker, you know,” he said, as if that should have been plain as day to me. “But that brings me to the explanation. I’m sure the people at RATH told you that you were going to be beta testing some technology for them. Since Kikuoka can’t use acceleration, the brunt of explanation is falling to me, since I was so eager to make contact with you.”

I frowned.

“Eager? I still don’t even know who…or _what_ you are,” I said.

He shook his head again.

“Ah, right, you don’t remember me,” he said. “For now, just call me Star King. I can explain why I’m eager to talk to you later, but first, let’s get to the basics. The Brain Implant Chip in your head is outlawed here in Japan. So, on record, no one knows you have it, not even Kikuoka’s team who planted it in your head. This way, they can deny connections should you be caught and someone discovers you have one.”

I blinked at him.

“Wait, Kikuoka didn’t say this was illegal!” I said.

Star King, as he called himself, gave me a curt nod.

“Of course, he wouldn’t,” he said. “He knows you wouldn’t agree to get an illegal chip implanted in your brain. But there’s no undoing that, now is there? Now, where was I. Ah, right. The reason for the chip you’re accelerating from at this very moment.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I needed to have a talk with Kikuoka when I got back to him. If he’d pulled me into another sketchy situation, I couldn’t forgive him for that. I’d spent weeks finally thinking I was safe, having demanded all of the details and having been expected to be told everything involving this project. Yet it appeared as if he’d pulled the wool over my eyes again. Ignoring my obvious dilemma, Star King plowed right ahead.

“Only a few people are getting a privilege like this, so try not to feel too upset,” he said. “Your B.I.C. has been loaded with two games at the moment. The first, Accel Assault 2038, is no longer in beta. We’ll be using that to get you used to the system. The second, Brain Burst 2039, is just now starting up. We’ll be placing you and a handful of other Originators into the game to kickstart things. Sometime in 2039, we hope to get the third experiment running—we’re thinking Cosmos Corrupt 2040. It has a nice ring to it.”

Crossing my arms, I glared at him.

“So, you want me to test three games?” I said. “Then why give me an illegal device to do it? You said earlier I could use acceleration technology from the Neurolinker. Why not just put it on there?”

A wry smile rested on Star King’s face.

“It’s much easier to interrupt an experiment on a device that anyone could hack,” he said. “Come on, Kirito. Have you lost your knack?”

I furrowed my brow.

“Then you all want to hide something,” I said.

“Ah, now you’re getting it!” he said. “But don’t lump me in with the people at RATH. I’m not a fan of those guys. Either way, you’re absolutely correct. This is a top-secret thing. And trust me, I’m just as curious to see what the results are as you probably are.”

He pointed around him at the blue overlay.

“As you’ve noticed by now, this blue overlay tells you that you’ve accelerated,” he said. “You aren’t actually in any of the games right now. Since you’ve got the privilege of being one of the very few people who will experience all three tests, you can select which game you’ll dive into after giving the command. Since you’ve been connected to the B.I.C. since it was implanted, your avatar creation is already complete.”

I blinked at him.

“Wait, hold on a second—”

“I’ve already held onto you for a good fifteen minutes,” he said. “How about we give you a test run, Kirito?”

I finally got close enough to touch him and sort of got in his face.

“Look, I don’t know what you want from me, Star King, but you’re not explaining anything very well, do you realize that?” I asked.

He hummed.

“You’re picky,” he said.

“I’m…I’m an adult man!” I said. “I’m not a child you can just trick into doing something for! I have a girlfriend! I’m going to be a father! I can’t just keep getting mixed up in these kinds of things!”

Star King’s brow raised a little.

“Asuna’s pregnant?”

I waved my hands around, frustrated.

“What’s it to you?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Nothing, really,” he said. “Never bothered having kids with my Asuna. Seemed like a bother. Can’t die, why make a kid that can? I shouldn’t bog you down with that. I’m sure that’s very nice for you two. Now, as I was saying, I’ve already wasted a few minutes here. I’m going to boot Accel Assault and let’s see how you do.”

I shook my head.

“I want to go back to Asuna!” I demanded, pointing in her direction down the hallway. “We were having a very important, tender moment back there! And you interrupted.”

He wasn’t paying attention to me. He grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me outside. When I was standing in the middle of the road, he smirked at me. I gave him a funny look. He pulled up what looked like a holographic keyboard and started to type in something. I tried to take a step forward, but then he looked up at me and bounced his eyebrows up and down a little.

“This’ll be more fun for me than it will be for you,” he said.

I straightened up.

“What will?” I asked.

He gave me a little wave.

“Try not to die _too_ fast, Kirito.”

“WAIT A MOMENT!”

The world changed in a terrifying instant. The blue overlay was quickly painted over into something that looked like the city itself, but clearly wasn’t. I noted that this overlay reminded me a bit of Ordinal Scale back in the day, but these graphics were more on par with those of the Underworld. I turned to ask Star King what had happened only to see he’d vanished. I sighed and turned to my right. Headlights flooded my vision. I screamed and leapt out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.

“What the hell? Am I outside now?” I said.

No, that wasn’t quite right. I knew I was still in the accelerated space. An HP bar and a special power up gauge were displayed in my field of vision. A weird name, in English letters, was next to the set of bars. I could also see someone else’s HP and special attack gauge.

“Fuschia…Dragon?” I murmured. “These are weird avatar names…I’d have just put ‘Kirito’ like I always do.”

I took a moment to look down at myself. I was shocked to note that unlike the VR games I’d played before, my body looked more like a robot than a person. It was the color of pencil lead and barely resembled a human being. I wanted to turn around and look at my reflection, but the other player in my vicinity showed up on my radar. I turned my head up to the top of the building in front of me. The person leapt down and landed in front of me, breaking up the ground with their fall.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a female voice said. “A newbie? Fresh meat? A sword user…seems perfect for a dragon. The knight come to slay me, huh? Not today, newbie.”

Her avatar was the same color as her name suggested. It looked like it was covered in scales from head to toe. She sported a long tail and her face mask resembled a Chinese dragon. Her eyes were just almond-shaped goggles, and they glinted a red color as she stated me down. She held up her hands, which sported thick claws, and cackled.

“W-wait a second, I don’t even know what’s going on!” I stammered, holding my hands up.

I mentally paused for a second.

_Did she say I have a sword?_

“Don’t go wasting the duel time blabbering, newbie!” she said. “I’m claiming my victory right now!”

Without giving me a further chance to talk it out. She threw herself at me, claws extended. I didn’t know if I should try to fight back or run. If I had a sword, that meant I was wearing it somewhere she could see. Instinctively, I reached behind my back with both hands, hoping a sword would be on either side. I gasped when my hands wrapped around two hilts. I pulled the swords out with a loud _schwing_ and tried to block her attack. She reached through my block and dug her claws into my right shoulder.

The pain wasn’t the worst I’d ever felt. The Underworld had had much more realistic pain recreation than this. But I hadn’t been expecting pain in the moment. It caught me off guard. As her claws dug into my shoulder deeper, I let out an involuntary scream. She laughed at my expense. I watched my HP bar start to decrease rapidly. Had she hit a sweet spot?

“Poor newbie wasn’t prepared for pain, was he?” she asked, laughing.

“S-stop…it…” I managed.

She didn’t. To pour salt into the wound, she grasped the part of my arm and ripped it clean off of my body. I let out another scream. I’d lost this arm before. Administrator’s sword had severed it from the rest of my body. I felt my mind start to go numb. I heard my righthand sword hit the ground. I let my left hand drop out of the blocking position.

“Giving up so soon?” she scoffed.

I tried to find the words to defend myself. I was tired. I was drunk. I just wanted to go back to Asuna and share that special conversation with her. I half-closed my eyes. This always happened, didn’t it? When would I learn to just leave the VR world alone? I was tempted by a hefty paycheck that would give Asuna and me a chance at a family. Now, here I was, having my virtual arm ripped off by some girl dressed like a robotic dragon.

“I’ll gladly take your points then, —”

She opened up her dragon’s maw and wrapped her mouth around my head. The last thing I recall was her teeth sinking into my skull, crushing it. The pain was excruciating. I didn’t even have the strength to scream. Everything went white. I heard a chuckle.

“Sorry about that, Kirito. Maybe I’ll give you a tutorial next time. Why don’t you wake up, then? Asuna seems pretty frazzled.”

My eyes snapped open. I didn’t know where I was. I looked up and saw Asuna crying and staring down the hallway. My hand shot up and grasped Asuna’s tightly. She let out a scream. I gasped and dug my fingers into her wrist. I sat up abruptly and stared at her.

“Where…where are we? How did you get there? What’s going on? Where’s Star King?”

“Kirito, you’re not making any sense…” Asuna said.

She placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Did you hit your head, maybe? Back in the booth?” she asked me. “What’s your name?”

“Kirito.”

She shook her head.

“No, no, what’s your NAME?” she asked.

Why was she quizzing me on this? I knit my brow together in frustration. Why was I blanking on that? I thought about it for a moment. 

“Silica, definitely call that ambulance,” Agil said.

Keiko nodded and hurried off. It hit me.

“Kiri…Kirigaya…Kazuto…” I stammered.

“Good, when’s your birthday?” Asuna asked.

Now wasn’t the time for that. I shook my head and let out an involuntary whine. Asuna made a face, looking at me with big concerned eyes.

“Where is he? He was just right here…”

My head started to feel a little light. I glanced at everyone staring at me and wanted to say something. But the room started to grow dark. I felt my body start to lose feeling. I let myself fall back into Asuna’s arms, and then everything went black. The last thing I heard was Asuna screaming.

“KIRITO!”


	6. Partners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I needed some Kirisuna touchy-touchy moments I guess. Haha.

The first sensation I noticed when I came to was the gentle pressure of a body wrapped around mine. I didn’t think much of that until I heard the intermittent beeping of the heart monitor. I chuckled. After fainting, it made sense that Asuna would have taken me to the hospital. She shouldn’t have crawled up into a hospital bed with me, but I could hardly blame her. Smiling, I opened my eyes and happily gazed at her resting face. I moved over and kissed her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Kirito?”

I smiled.

“Sorry to wake you,” I whispered.

“Kirito!” she cried.

She wrapped her arms around me and started sobbing. I picked up my arm, which apparently had an IV in it, and wrapped it around her, holding her gently against me. She pulled away and then pressed her forehead against mine.

“I…I was so worried…you just…collapsed…” she said.

“Collapsed?” I said.

How long had the dive taken? Is that why I’d been on the floor?

“And then you woke up for a moment and were talking about some Star King person and you scared me…you scared me so much…”

I gently stroked her hair and wondered what I should tell her. I’d originally planned to tell her nothing, to keep her out of whatever mess Kikuoka might toss me into. This mess seemed pretty serious now, even though I thought I’d taken precautions. Now, I wanted to involve her even less. I frowned.

Asuna wiped her tears off of her face and reached over to touch my cheek. There was so much relief in her eyes that it lifted my spirts just a bit.

“Say, you were pretty drunk,” she said.

I laughed.

“I guess I was,” I said. “I apologize. I was trying to out-do Klein. You know how it goes.”

She shook her head.

“What am I going to do with you?” she said, sighing. “But you may not remember…”

I hummed.

“May not remember what?” I said.

Her eyes seemed to sparkle a little. She sat up and reached over to grasp my hand. She squeezed it gently.

“We did it,” she said. “We’re pregnant.”

I gently stroked her hand with my thumb. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled my chest. I couldn’t help but gaze at her stomach. Laughing, she picked up my hand and held it against her belly. I suddenly felt the reality of the situation hit me all at once. My shoulders started to shake. Asuna reached over and stroked my hair.

“Are you going to cry on me?” she asked, giggling.

All I could do was nod. A nurse happened to walk in right when I started crying. Asuna pulled me into a hug and apologized to her, explaining she’d just told me that we were having a baby. The nurse giggled and congratulated us on our new addition, giving us her well-wishes for a healthy, happy little family.

“Do you mind if I take a quick look at Mister Kirigaya?” she asked.

“Please,” Asuna said.

She let me go and got off of the bed. The nurse gave me a lookover and said I looked fine and was perfectly healthy (aside from being a bit overweight, which she said wasn’t an unhealthy thing in my case, but most doctors would advise against). She did, however, frown and pull up something on her tablet.

“So, my only concern is this,” she said.

She projected an x-ray of my head up onto the monitor for both me and Asuna to see. Asuna, naturally, immediately noticed what was “wrong.” She gasped and looked at me, her eyes searching for something she’d missed. She pushed me forward to look at the back of my head.

“I was a bit worried to find one of these in your head, Mister Kirigaya,” she said. “Brain Implant Chips were outlawed in Japan a few years ago, you know. But I looked up your file and it says that you have a special designation from the courts in Tokyo to have this implant for medical reasons. The reasoning is vague, though.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. Asuna was giving me a wild look, probably wondering when I went and stuck an illegal chip in my head. The nurse, on the other hand, seemed to be questioning what medical condition I’d been diagnosed with that wasn’t on my medical history. I swallowed and tried my best to ad-lib. I was going to be kicking Kikuoka somewhere unpleasant next time I found him.

“It’s…for work,” I said slowly, glancing at Asuna.

She stiffened up.

“Government work,” I said. “They’re monitoring my vitals.”

The nurse lifted an eyebrow.

“Don’t you already have a chip for that in your chest, Mister Kirigaya?” she asked.

I swallowed.

“Not those vitals,” I said quickly.

In the back of my head, I wanted to bang my head into the wall and really give my self a concussion. “Not those vitals.” What a stupid answer! I had to resist the urge to even slam my hand into my forehead for that one. The nurse just gave me a funny look and closed out the x-ray. She seemed skeptical, but since I was playing a bit too dumb, she probably took that to mean I was a government worker who didn’t read up on his own file and procedures.

“Well, in any event, you’re healthy and nothing’s wrong with that head of yours,” she said. “I’m going to clear you to leave.”

After being released from the hospital, we took a quiet cab back to our apartment. The entire time, Asuna didn’t say a word to me. I wondered how mad she was at me. Would she ask questions later? I suppose she deserved some answers. We got all the way home and into our bedroom before she finally spoke up. We were sitting with our backs facing each other on opposite sides of the bed.

“Why is there an illegal chip in your head?” she asked.

It was straight and to the point. I sighed.

“RATH put it there,” I said.

I could feel her tension without even looking at or touching her.

“And why did you let them do that?” she asked.

I reached into my bag and pulled out one of the checks I’d received and handed it to her. She took it and I heard her inhale sharply.

“You’re not a money-hungry person, Kirito,” she said flatly. “This can’t be the reason.”

I turned around and looked at the back of her head.

“You’ve waited so long for me to agree to have a baby with you,” I said. “And I wasn’t going to agree unless I felt like I could provide for a child. Kikuoka offered me a rather large sum of money to beta test some games for him, which turned out not to be what I thought it was, which I guess I had coming for agreeing to work with him again. I’m sorry if you’re angry, but I wanted to have something to feed our child with.”

She slowly turned around and looked at me. There were tears streaming down her face. She reached over and grasped my head in her hands. She was trembling. I swallowed. Her fingers wandered over the shaved part of the back of my head where they’d put the B.I.C. into my skull. Guilt filled my belly.

“You didn’t have to do this,” she said. “And now that man’s gone and stuck something in your head. Is that what made you collapse last night?”

I nodded.

“I was sucked into the system’s full dive feature on accident, I think,” I said.

I leaned my cheek into her hand.

“I’m sorry, Asuna,” I said. “I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I just didn’t want you to worry about it, since Kikuoka was in charge. And now I’ve gone and made you worry more.”

Asuna knit her brow at me.

“If you’re diving into somewhere dangerous, then so am I.”

My eyes widened. The game I’d experienced last night had realistic pain in it. My eyes wandered down to her belly and then back up to her eyes again. I bit my lip. I didn’t want to tell her no. I wanted her by my side. But.

“Asuna…it might shock your system,” I said. “I thought my arm was really being pulled off. It almost felt like…”

She shook her head.

“Remember who was run through time after time and kept going back in the Underworld,” she said. “I’m stronger than you’re giving me credit for, Kirito. If you’re diving in and you have to fight, I’m going to be by your side.”

She grasped the sides of my face and squished my cheeks in a little.

“We’ve always been partners,” she said. “I’m not playing the damsel on the sidelines just because I’m pregnant. It’s a VR world, Kirito. Our baby will still be safe. I promise that nothing will happen to our little one. Just don’t leave me out this time. You don’t have to protect me. Remember? I’m going to protect _you_.”

I gave in and nodded at her.

“Okay,” I said.

She pulled me into a kiss. When we parted, I reached over and placed my hand on her belly. She ran her fingers through my hair.

“Now, tell me, Kirito,” she said. “What exactly are we diving into?”


	7. A Few Appointments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Disclaimer- I've only read a few spoilers about Star King so I'm ad libbing the hell out of him.

Asuna and I showed up at RATH the next day to give our demands. The first was that Asuna received a B.I.C. as well. The second was that our records stated a better relevance for our B.I.C. clearances. And the third was that we were allowed to work together no matter what. Kikuoka begrudgingly agreed to let Asuna in on the project, placed a chip in her head, and then said he would postpone another test until Asuna’s program was ready.

However, we were both uneasy and waiting for me to collapse again. It didn’t matter what the man said, neither one of us believed him. He could pull me into an impromptu dive at any given moment. She hated to leave me for more than ten minutes to do anything, so I got dragged around everywhere like a dog on a leash. At least I got some moments of respite. But for the most part, she didn’t let me out of her sight. I turned and gazed at her as she flipped through a magazine next to me.

There was still a funny look on her face. It had been there since she’d had the B.I.C. implanted. Something told me that whatever look I’d had on my face when I’d died in the game and exited the full dive must have been horrible. I’d catch her touching the back of her head and making this face, as if she were worried about something. I reached my hand over and gently touched my fingers to the shaved part of her head, hidden beneath her chestnut hair. She jumped a little, startled.

“Kirito?” she said.

I smiled at her and then pulled her towards me to give her a kiss on the lips. She blushed and pulled back.

“Not here,” she said, giggling a little. “We’re in a waiting room full of other people.”

She leaned over and showed me the magazine she was looking at. It was a science magazine, and the article was about how the genes of a child’s parents were meshed together to make an entirely new set of genetic data.

“This article puts it like humans are computers,” she said, laughing. “‘Two lines of code, one from the male and one from the female, are merged together to make a new line of code.’ It sounds like something you might have come up with. What do you think?”

She hummed and leaned her head against my shoulder.

“About what?” I asked.

She set the magazine down in her lap and put a hand to her belly.

“What lines of code do you think the baby will get from you and which ones will the baby get from me?” she asked.

The fuzzy feeling returned. Any time she reminded me that there was a baby growing in her belly, that feeling took me over completely. It was so small that I felt I had to be reminded that it was there, but it didn’t change the fact that we’d made a tiny life together. I could forget about the stress of this beta testing job and focus on that. We were a mama and papa now.

“U-um…I’m not a geneticist or anything,” I said. “But I…I hope the baby gets your eyes…”

She just giggled and wrapped her arms around mine, hugging it.

“Ms. Yuuki?”

We both turned our heads to the open door. Asuna stood up. I was perfectly fine waiting right here, I guessed. Since we weren’t married, I wasn’t sure that I could accompany her anyways. But Asuna yanked me up with her anyways and pulled me over to the door. She told the nurse standing there that I was her boyfriend and that she was giving me consent to come back with her for the appointment. I just gazed at her and smiled. I must have been giving off some kind of cue that I was curious.

I mostly just sat there. Some of the checks were a little odd, but I think that was because I was seeing a stranger in the room. I’d never thought about the fact that doctors had to look at particularly private things as a part of their job until now, even though I knew for a fact that my doctors had seen every inch of me.

When the nurse left the room, I asked Asuna if all of that was uncomfortable, and she just laughed.

“Why did you let me back here?” I asked. “I mean, I know I’m curious and all, but is it because you’re scared I’ll get pulled into a dive again?”

She shook her head and reached over to grasp my palm.

“I wanted you to see the ultrasound,” she said.

“Are you getting an ultrasound?” I asked, suddenly excited.

Asuna laughed and nodded.

“Of course,” she said. “I thought you might want to see our baby for the first time. When the doctor comes back, they’re going to take a look and show us the baby.”

Excitement bubbled up in my chest. Asuna was giggling at me, but I didn’t care. This was a magical moment. Modern technology would allow us to see something people in the past didn’t get to look at. When the doctor came in, he explained the process of the ultrasound to us, just in case neither of us was familiar. He then moved out of the way for us to see the screen. Asuna and I clasped hands.

“That’s your baby,” the doctor said. “He or she is looking pretty good! From everything we’ve looked at so far, I’ve determined that you’re about ten weeks along. Make sure you’re getting a lot to drink and watching your intake of certain foods.”

“The baby’s so small!” I said.

I couldn’t put words to the emotion welling up in my chest. The image I was looking at barely looked human—it was incredibly tiny, just a little blip on the screen. But that little blip made my heart race. I squeezed Asuna’s hand. I wasn’t going to mess up this time. I was going to protect this little one.

That fear still lingered in the back inside of me. Every time I thought of Sachi and Eugeo, I felt my soul quiver. I blamed myself for their deaths, and even when I’d thought Asuna was gone, I’d blamed myself for that, too. The precious new life Asuna and I had created was something I needed to protect. And I’d failed to protect before. I bit my lip and drew in a deep breath.

_Sachi, Eugeo—I promise that my child will be safe. I swear to you both._

I took on that mentality and smiled brightly. The past couldn’t weigh me down this time. I wasn’t going to let it. I maintained my smile all the way from the clinic to RATH’s office. It melted when we walked through the door—or so I thought.

“Kirigaya, you’re in a good mood today!” Aki said, poking around the corner to greet us.

“A-am I?” I said, laughing.

Asuna wrapped her arms around one of mine and smiled up at me. I think seeing me smile about our baby must have warmed her up inside, because usually she had a very sour look on her face when she was near any of the people from RATH. Then again, Aki hadn’t done anything quite so horrible as Kikuoka—she was just a nurse. I was certain I’d see her malice eking out as soon as the man himself entered the room.

“Are you feeling okay healing up from the implant?” Aki asked her.

I glanced at Asuna. She nodded and warily put her fingers to the back of her skull.

“I can’t even tell it’s there,” she said. “It’s strange. I had been wondering how Kirito felt physically about the chips in his body, but I suppose now I realize that they aren’t that noticeable.”

Still, she reached over and ran her fingers over my heart.

“Yeah, I forget that one’s there, sometimes,” I admitted, letting out a dry chuckle. “So, I guess we’re doing the official test dive today?”

Aki nodded.

“That’s what Kikuoka said,” she said. “He wanted to also formally apologize again for you being sucked into a dive without consent the other day. He wasn’t sure what all of that was, since RATH didn’t authorize a test dive from you.”

I blinked.

“They…didn’t?” I said.

“No, we didn’t.”

Asuna and I turned around and saw Kikuoka entering the room, hands in his pockets. He was followed closely by Dr. Koujirou Rinko, who seemed to be giving him a displeased glare from behind his back. Kikuoka sat up on one of the counters, a behavior that suited his personality despite him coming across as a government professional. He smiled and turned his attention to Asuna before continuing.

“I see from your medical records you two were successful in getting pregnant,” he said. “Congratulations.”

I cleared my throat.

“You were saying something about that dive being unauthorized?” I said.

“They’re pregnant?” Dr. Koujirou said, once again skirting around my demand for clarification.

I wanted to focus back on the topic at hand, but I noticed Asuna give a shy nod this time. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze and smiled up at me. Sighing, I gave in and smiled as well.

“We’re expecting our little one in May,” Asuna said.

Dr. Koujirou gave us a warm smile.

“I know Kikuoka already said it, but congratulations,” she said. “I’m happy for you two.”

She then turned to her co-worker and frowned.

“Now, I believe Kirigaya had a question,” she said. “And we, too, would like to look into that dive that occurred a while back.”

Relieved, I nodded and turned my attention back to Kikuoka.

“I’d like you to describe the dive to me in full detail,” he said, giving me a serious look. “Because we did a quick inspection of your B.I.C. to see why you were pulled into a dive while drunk, of all things, since the commands to activate the B.I.C. require your autonomy. I’d like to firstly apologize on behalf of RATH if you ran into who we think you did.”  
I swallowed.

“He…he called himself Star King,” I said. “And…he looked…”

Asuna frowned at me.

“Kirito? Is something wrong?” she asked.

I drew in a breath.

“He looked like a younger version of myself,” I said. “It was like looking into a mirror from years ago.”

Beside me, Asuna tensed up. A crease formed in Kikuoka’s brow. He hummed and glanced over at Dr. Koujirou, who frowned and shook her head. He then looked up at me and drew in a deep breath. I didn’t like the implications of this. I tightened my grip on Asuna’s hand and tried to prepare myself for whatever the answer was.

“What did you all do?” I asked, my voice wavering.

He shifted his weight.

“Star King is a copy of your fluctlight,” Kikuoka said.

I felt something snap in my chest.

“And he escaped from the Underworld and is no longer operating under the control of RATH.”

“A copy…of my…” I trailed off.

Kikuoka nodded.

“That’s right, Kirigaya,” he said. “And if he’s shown an interest in this project, I’m very worried. He might have been you at one point, but he’d definitely no longer a second Kirito. He’s formed his own personality and motivations. The biggest question here, though…”

He grasped his chin and hummed.

“What’s got him so interested in you?”


	8. The Battle of the Self

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Update I read volume 18 and will be doing what I can with what I have. I also read AW 20 and *whoops* but since it's fanfic we're gonna just. Pretend I can do whatever tf I want with Accel Assault and Cosmos Corrupt lads.

Escaped was a funny way to put it. If he had to put a word to it, that word would definitely be stolen. True, he’d known that after his two-hundred year stay in the Underworld that he’d be deleted in favor of letting Kirigaya Kazuto live out the rest of his human life normally back in Japan, but he’d been at peace with that. After all, two-hundred years was quite a long and fulfilling life. He recalled the last conversation he’d had in the Underworld with a smirk.

“Do you regret choosing to stay here?”

Her chestnut hair blew in the wind as she shook her head.

“Not at all.”

Her lips gently pressed into his. Had anyone had a love as long and successful as theirs? He supposed not. Even the Integrity Knights hadn’t had relationships that lasted as long as theirs. They’d agreed then, sensing that their time was coming to an end, that they would be fine closing their eyes here and never opening them again. They’d lived their lives. They were wonderful lives. In a world they’d loved with their entire beings.

There was, of course, no way to tell when the dive would end. They’d been given a guess estimation when the acceleration rate had been changed. He remembered so long ago, thinking that he’d been trapped in a world without any of his friends or family from the real world. He’d crumpled to the ground and felt his heart shattering. But then he’d heard her voice and turned around. Anger, at not being able to stop her. But joy washed that anger away in a heartbeat—he would die here with his beloved.

He wasn’t the same person who had dived into the Soul Translator two-hundred years before. Asuna wasn’t either. They were much older and far more mature than they’d been as children diving into the world. They’d gone places, done things, and ruled an empire. It was hard to imagine a life existing after they passed into the real world and promptly died from having outlived their fluctlight limits. So, when everything faded to black, he didn’t expect to see light again at all.

And then, there was a brief moment of awakening.

Then all went black again. Star King and Star Queen should have been dead. And yet.

He kicked at a rock within the virtual world and frowned at it. It wasn’t the sort of world he’d hoped would come from the same kind of technology that had created the Underworld. This Accelerated World wasn’t built to be a civilization, though. The company RATH had something else going on, and these three games, all built around the same base world, all centered on one focal point—something they called The Fluctuating Light. He was here to check that out, of course, but he was side-tracked by the introduction of a familiar face into the game.

“He’s going to be a father,” he said, chuckling.

Beside him, the man who’d started all of them down this strange path merely smiled back at him. Perhaps it was inevitable that he’d get involved. It didn’t matter what turn the virtual world took, Kirito couldn’t keep his hands off of it. That was the sort of person Kirito—Kirigaya Kazuto, at least—was.

“We should pass on our well wishes, then.”

He looked at the man and raised his eyebrows. The other man was so monotone that he wondered was he truly congratulating the expectant couple or was he just repeating a formality that he was used to. He didn’t seem the sort to give any care to whether or not someone had a baby or not. Sighing, he kept talking.

“Still,” he said. “Asuna and I agreed not to have any children since we knew we’d outlive them, even though I think we both, deep down, at some point, wanted kids. To think that he woke back up in the real world and gets to have a nice, normal-length life with her all over again? Man, what a lucky bastard.”

The other man just shook his head.

“Are you angry?” he asked.

He huffed. Angry couldn’t be the right word. He’d been denied his peaceful ending and ripped away from his lover and the world he treasured. Angry was too light of a word for the feeling inside of his chest. Why couldn’t he have collapsed like other copied fluctlights? He cursed the genius who’d stabilized him.

“As if you care,” he said, shooting the man a look. “Kirito’s going to dive into this here Accelerated World alongside Asuna. I think that’s quite fitting. Do you think _he’ll _be angry if he sees The Fluctuating Light?”

The other man hummed and glanced back at the Castle. It was a structure that was unchanging no matter what the manner of the stage nor which version of the program was that they stood in. Social network cameras used the real world as a basis for this virtual space, but since the Castle was based around the Imperial Palace, none of the cameras could see the inside of the structure. It was the perfect place to hide something valuable from the players of the world.

“No,” the man said.

He gave him a sidelong look.

“No?” he repeated. “That’s what you think, Kayaba?”

The man smiled and nodded.

“I think Kirito will want to protect him.”

His eyebrows shot upwards.

“Him?”

He gazed at the gate before them. If they approached the gate as players, it would summon a god-class Enemy—an NPC of sorts that was meant to protect the Castle. But they stood here merely as two souls walking around inside of the world, neither with avatars at the moment nor with any particular motives.

“So, it’s a fluctlight after all, then?” he said.

Kayaba dipped his head.

“Then I suppose it’s my goal to return him to the safety of the Underworld, then, isn’t it?”

The two shared a look.

“Will you try to stop me?” he asked.

Kayaba shook his head.

“No,” he said. “But I do wonder, Star King…”

He gazed over at the man. He had a pensive look on his face. It was inscrutable. They were very different people, even if they were both souls without a body roaming around the digital world without a care as to what the flesh-and-blood people of Earth were doing. Kayaba’s goals were certainly different than his, but he was at least somewhat of an ally. He couldn’t trust him to not interfere with his prioritization of the Underworlders, though.

“What do you wonder?” he asked.

Kayaba smiled softly and gazed back up at the Castle.

“Will Kirito try to stop you instead?”

Star King huffed and placed his hands on his hips.

“I’d like to see him try.”


	9. Modified Task

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I got SAO 19 and AW 21 in the mail this week and oop. Time to cry. Hope you enjoy some more of this what-if scenario and a little soft Kirisuna bit!

When I opened my eyes, I was in a space that didn’t match up with where Star King had dragged me the first time. This space was blue, overlaying the real world. I could still see my real body, as well as Asuna’s, but we were standing there as avatars we’d set up for our Neurolinkers. Kids apparently made these a bit more creative, but these avatars looked like identical versions of myself and Asuna. Kikuoka walked over to us, his avatar sporting a very loud Hawaiian print shirt. Asuna and I both frowned at him.

“Ah! Excellent! You both successfully accelerated,” he said.

I tried to hide my disgust.

“I wasn’t aware you had a B.I.C., too,” I muttered.

Kikuoka smiled.

“Say, Kirito,” he said. “Your avatar’s a bit slimmer than the real Kirito, isn’t it?”

I furrowed my brow at him.

“Can you make rude comments on your own time?” I asked. “We’re here for the demonstration or explanation of what you want us to do.”

He just chuckled.

“So, I won’t be able to follow you beyond here, because I’ve set up my Neurolinker to allow me into this space by a different means than your B.I.C.s are pulling you into acceleration. If you pull up your menus, you will see you’re both at the first level. It will show you how to execute your special moves. You should test out how to deal damage and such, but on the surface, Brain Burst is a fighting game. You engage in duels, which can include teams, and the winners take something called Burst Points.”

Asuna and I nodded. So far, it just sounded like a VR fighting game.

“And why do we need to be investigating this game for you?” Asuna said. “Kirito mentioned that the pain sensation was very real. Why would you create such a game?”

Kikuoka shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose, as if he needed to do something like that in a virtual space.

“There’s something called the Unlimited Neutral Field that you’ll need to dive into,” he said. “You have to be at least level four to dive into this field. You’ll need to win duels and gain points to level up. Please note, everything you do costs Burst Points. Accelerating, dueling, diving into certain spaces, leveling up, purchasing things. You cannot let your Burst Points hit zero. I would make an exception for you two, but I cannot let the regular players see you working outside of the norm.”

I frowned.

“Wait, what happens if I hit zero points?” I asked.

Something old and terrified rose up in my soul. Asuna reached over and grasped my arm, probably sensing that the idea of death in a virtual world was replaying in my head. I’d died in that first battle without knowing, and saw that when I’d dove in today, my points were lower. If hitting zero would do something dangerous, this was even worse than I’d bargained for. But Kikuoka lifted his head and smiled at me, as if nothing were wrong.

“If your points hit zero, the B.I.C. in your head will self-destruct and your memories of Brain Burst will be erased,” he said.

I tensed up and grasped Asuna’s hand.

“Wh-what did you put in our heads?!” I exclaimed.

Kikuoka laughed. I didn’t see what was so funny.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” he said, waving a hand. “The self-destruction process will not harm your brain. It’ll dissolve and your body will take care of disposing of the broken parts, I think. It’s completely harmless. You, your wife, and your unborn child won’t be affected at all if this happens to you.”

I squeezed Asuna’s hand a little tighter.

“Again, what do you want us to do?” Asuna asked. “What’s in this Unlimited Neutral Field that you want us to look at or work with?”

Kikuoka looked at me and hummed for a moment before looking at Asuna.

“When you make it to the Unlimited Neutral Field, I want you to enter the Castle,” he said. “It’s a space that occupies where the Imperial Palace is in the real world. Inside of that Castle, there’s something I want to protect until it’s done being built. I’d fill you in on more than that, but it’s corrupted data we dragged out of the Underworld. Even we don’t know what’s in that file, but we suspect it’s an A.L.I.C.E. that formed during the War of the Underworld.”

I swallowed.

“An artificial fluctlight,” I said.

Kikuoka nodded.

“One that might have gained true intelligence, just like our Alice!” he said, waving a hand up in the air. “Which brings me to this, too.”

He adjusted his glasses again.

“Star King, the copy of your fluctlight,” he said. “Higa eventually came forward and admitted that he’d copied your fluctlight and made it stable. Star King announced that he would fight for the Underworld. He has no interest in this outside world, at least as far as I’m aware. Knowing that he’s contacted you means that he might also want to look at the data we’re trying so desperately to restore.”

I furrowed my brow and gave him a firm nod.

“Meaning…if it is actually a fluctlight, he’ll want to return it to the Underworld,” I said. “You’re asking me to play keep-away, then?”

He snapped his fingers.

“Bingo!” he said.

It made sense. I was being hired to protect this project from the other players while disguising myself as a player. But that just brought up another question—why make it a game at all if he didn’t want people interfering with it. What was the purpose of the players even being involved in this? I brought one hand up to my head. I’d told him he had to be honest with me, but I feared being left out of important notes again. I frowned at him.

“What’s the matter, Kirito?” he asked.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Why even invite players into the system if you don’t want them discovering or tampering with the rebuilding of this fluctlight?” I asked. “What do you need the players for?”

A hint of a smile played on his lips. It vanished quickly, though, replaced by a serious expression.

“Human emotions have always been crucial to cultivating a realistic A.I.,” he said. “In the same way you were used to try and influence the fluctlights of the Underworld, these players’ emotional data will be used to help cultivate this fluctlight. All of their data—their emotions, their decisions, their opinions—it will all influence the new A.L.I.C.E.’s data the same way you influenced Alice.”

I gritted my teeth. It was one thing to use me, but another one entirely to use a bunch of kids. I was having regrets jumping into this. Since Kikuoka couldn’t follow us into the game, he told us that we’d be diving on our own time. We said that we needed some time to think about things before we started our initial dive, and we went home, sharing a bit of morbid silence. The silence was broken by Asuna, who told me she had to get out of the car to throw up. I quickly pulled over. She dashed into the closest store that had a bathroom sign. I scurried in after her.

Naturally, I couldn’t follow her into the bathroom. I waited in one of the aisles, picking out some light snacks and drinks to hopefully help her uneasy stomach. I numbly walked up to purchase them. The person behind the counter was an older woman. She watched me as I kept glancing over towards the bathroom area with a worried look.

“Is your girlfriend okay?” she asked.

I blinked out of my daze.

“Oh, yeah, she’s fine,” I said. “I think the baby’s just making her a little sick.”

The woman smiled warmly at me.

“Congratulations,” she said.

I nodded at her in thanks. Asuna finally emerged from the restroom, one hand clutching her belly. I picked up a ginger ale I’d purchased off of the counter and handed it to her. She smiled and mumbled a thanks.

“I got some snacks here, too, if you want something to munch on,” I said. “You think you can make it back home, or should we sit down on a bench nearby for a minute?”

She frowned and glanced outside over at a bench.

“Yeah, let’s sit down,” I said.

I snatched up the bag of snacks in one hand and Asuna’s hand in the other. I thanked the cashier and walked her outside to sit down on the bench. She took the bag and pulled something out to munch on. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and let her lean up against me. Her head bumped against my shoulder.

Smiling, I reached over and pressed my hand against her belly. She put one hand on top of mine. Despite how unpleasant she must have been feeling, I could see a faint smile on her lips, too. I kissed the top of her head and rested my head against hers.

“He’s using children to influence an artificial fluctlight,” she mumbled.

I felt her hand shaking. I frowned down at her belly. That’s probably what felt so off to me. We were sensitive to the thought of children being harmed now. If we’d been bothered before, that feeling was only intensified by the fact that we were having a baby ourselves. Imagining Kikuoka taking advantage of our child made something in my chest burn.

“We shouldn’t put a Neurolinker on the baby,” I said quietly. “I know we’ll want to use it to monitor the baby’s health and everything, but, Asuna…he explained to me that the other players have to meet certain criteria. A child raised from birth with a Neurolinker on and has the mental processing speed to handle it. We can’t risk our child getting swept up in this if it lasts long enough.”

Asuna nodded.

“You’re right,” she said. “If he hurt our baby, I’d…I’d…”

I pulled her into a tight hug.

“He’s not going to lay a finger on our child,” I said. “No matter what happens, we are not letting our child be hurt by a virtual world like we were. I refuse to let that happen.”

She nodded into my shirt. I stroked her hair. She let out a sob that she’d been holding in. It was likely pent up from her hormones and hearing Kikuoka say morally ambiguous things. I made a mental note to remind him later—human lives would always matter most to me. If at any point Asuna, our baby, or one of the kids playing this game appeared to be in mortal danger, I wouldn’t hesitate to turn on him. But surely he knew that by now.

The only thing was whether or not he believed I would.

And I would.


	10. Older Players versus Newer Players

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Or, as the other title of this chapter should be "I have read like 21 volumes of Accel World and still struggle to write one Brain Burst duel." Ah ha ha ha ha. I was more focused on designing Asuna's avatar. I really had fun thinking up her duel avatar, so I hope you like it, too! A part of me is sad I made Kirito be GE for this because I didn't get to make an avatar for him, but maybe I'll explore that in another fic some day.

The next time the lights flicked on and someone was retching into the toilet, it wasn’t Asuna, but rather myself. I felt miserable the moment I realized this whole setup was sending my own mental progress back years. The minute my head hit the pillow, I’d been asleep. And the moment I fell asleep, the daunting feeling of hitting zero points overwhelmed me. The nightmare was so bad I couldn’t really remember it—just the gut feeling that I’d hit zero points in Brain Burst and the B.I.C. in my skull had self-destructed, killing me in the process to cover Rath’s tracks.

I recall Asuna getting up, worried because I was throwing up and sobbing. She managed to coax me back into the bed. She cradled me in her arms, reassuring me that everything was going to be alright. Naturally, listening to her soothing voice calmed me down. Asuna’s strength was unreachable to me. Despite all of the traumatic things she went through, here she was, comforting me and being my rock. I finally fell back asleep in her arms. I woke up clinging to her like a scared child.

We agreed that we’d wait a few days before we attempted our first dive into the PvP battles Kikouka had mentioned. We had to reach level four in order to get to the Unlimited Neutral Field, and once we made it there, we were officially on the clock. I filled Asuna in on my first unwanted battle—the one that Star King had tossed me into without so much as a word of advice. I told her that my avatar had dual swords, but the other had looked like a dragon and used claws and teeth.

“It seems like the avatars are pre-determined for us,” I told her. “We don’t pick our names or what type we’d like. I’m curious what it’s based off of. Or do you think Kikuoka just picked avatars for us.”

She hummed.

“We’ll just have to ask other players if they know, right?” she said. “I’m curious to see what mine will look like, then.”

I nodded. I couldn’t say I wasn’t curious, too. A game that picked your avatar for you sounded pretty peculiar. Were all of the avatars completely unique, or were they mismatched so that some abilities and looks overlapped? It would be easier to code something that randomized mixing and matching, but it would be an incredible technological feat to ensure that every avatar and move set was unique to the player.

Asuna and I chose to do our first dive from our own home. We’d asked for some pointers from Kikuoka. We set our statuses to have us fight as a team, so on something called the matching list, we went up against other paired off players. We could either choose a pair or we could be pulled into a match suddenly. Since we didn’t know any of the names, it was difficult to make a decision before we found ourselves pulled into a match.

The sound of acceleration filled my ears. For a moment, I felt completely weightless. Then, my senses returned to me as I settled into the avatar body I hadn’t used for about a month and a half. I gazed down at the robotic, almost metallic arms, humming to myself. I turned to see if Asuna was on my right and my mouth would have hit the floor if this had been a cartoon. The avatar standing next to me didn’t even look physical in nature.

“Holy…shit…”

Two red eye lenses looked over at me.

“Kirito, is that you?”

I numbly nodded.

“Where are your…limbs at?” I asked.

Asuna looked down at herself. The entire avatar seemed to be made up of electricity. It was bright to look at and jumped a bit at the edges. I walked around her until a dark building lined up behind her. Her figure was slim and did, in fact, have arms and legs. It also appeared to have a little skirt, but these details were very fine. I reached a hand out to touch her. She took a step back.

“What if I deal you damage?” she asked.

I stopped in my tracks. I wanted to whine to her that it didn’t matter right now—this was incredibly cool and I wanted to see what her avatar felt like. She was giving me a warning look, but she knew just as well as I did that there was no stopping me. I reached over to tap her avatar. The flickering armor gave me a buzzing sensation similar to how it feels as a child when you first stick your hand near an outlet and get zapped from a jumping current. I pulled my hand back and waved it, blowing on it as if that might help.

“Look at that! You lost a bit of HP!” Asuna said, crossing her arms.

I chuckled and glanced up at my HP bar. She was right. Touching her had dealt me a small amount of damage. I looked at her avatar name below mine and smiled. I don’t know if I even had a mouth to smile with, but the name reminded me of our old days back in SAO.

“Lightning Flash, huh?” I said.

She nodded.

“Yours isn’t quite so coincidental, is it Graphite Edge?” she asked, teasing me a bit.

I shrugged.

“Am I edgy and the color of pencil lead?” I asked.

I could feel her rolling her eyes at me.

“It looks like our opponents are north of us,” Asuna said. “A couple of avatars named Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom. Appear to be level two, so they’ll be a bit tough for us since we’ve never tried this before.”

Reaching behind my back, I wrapped my hands around the hilts of the two swords kept there. The familiarity of two blades in my palms gave me an advantage. I pulled the blades out and held them in front of me. Asuna tilted her head. Perhaps she was sad that her trusty rapier wasn’t at her hip. She had no weapons, so it looked like she’d need to use her body for hand-to-hand combat. With anyone else, I might ask if she wanted to run a practice duel, but I trusted in my partner.

“Since when has tough stopped us?” I asked her, looking back at the cursor indicating the direction of our opponents.

She hummed.

“You can be so cocky sometimes,” she remarked.

I laughed.

“I’m just being frank,” I said. “Now, let’s see how this special attack gauge works.”

I whirled around to my left and cut a wide arc with the sword in my right hand, slamming the blade into the terrain. The rocks, the signs, the buildings—we tried everything, including the ground. It seemed that certain objects were, in fact, destructible, while others couldn’t be scratched. The ones that broke when we hit them did boost our special attack gauges. We managed to get them about a quarter of the way full by the time the first avatar appeared before us.

It was a small, female avatar that resembled a nurse. Her color was yellow-orange and she held herself in a very calm manner. She regarded Asuna and I curiously for a moment before she bowed her head politely.

“New faces,” she said. “I’m pleased to meet you. My name is Saffron Blossom. It’s a pleasure to be dueling against you today.”

I glanced over at Asuna, unsure of what to say. I’d never run into a polite gamer like this before. People usually just went ahead and confronted one another. I nodded my head back at her, feeling a bit awkward.

“N-nice to meet you, too,” I said. “I’m Ki…er…Graphite Edge. And this is my girl…my, uh, partner, A…Lightning Flash.”

Asuna shot me a look. It wasn’t that hard to switch how we referred to each other. I knew that. But after years of going by Kirito and Asuna, it was pretty weird to suddenly use these system-given names we’d said only once before. Asuna gave the player a bow as well, only to be met suddenly by the second player, who appeared from seemingly out of nowhere.

This avatar had a chrome color to it, true to the name, and had a face helmet in the shape of a beak. Chrome Falcon had appeared on the playing field so suddenly we barely had time to think. He thrust his arms forward towards Asuna. She lifted her arms to block. I thought perhaps she was going to be thrown back a bit, but as soon as his hands connected with her arm, her electrical current covered his body. The avatar screamed in shock.

“How are you doing that?!” I exclaimed.

She shook her head.

“I…I think it’s just a passive skill my avatar has!” she called back.

She leaned into her arm and pushed Chrome Falcon back, trying to throw it into Saffron Blossom. The female avatar stepped to the side calmly, avoiding a collision with her partner. I watched the chrome avatar slam into a sign behind her and lose a bit more of his HP. This was starting to make a bit more sense. Damage seemed to be taken from force applied to the avatar as well as from special effects such as Asuna’s electrical armor.

“If that’s the case…” I muttered.

I leaned forward, a bit closer to the ground, and sprung forward to pursue Chrome Falcon. From a better look at the avatar, Chrome Falcon was male, giving us two mixed pairs. Not that it mattered so much. As I approached him, he braced himself for impact. I prepared myself for an upwards thrust with my right arm. He had nowhere to run, since he was backed against an awkward object. I let out a scream as I ran up to him, but then he crossed his arms and flashed away from me. I stopped in my tracks and whirled around.

He’d appeared over in front of Asuna again, this time more wary of her electricity than before. He glanced back at his partner. She nodded her head and pressed her hands together as if in prayer. Large blossoms appeared out of the ground, surrounding Asuna. They released some kind of pollen-like substance around her. I saw Asuna start to lose damage. She didn’t flinch, though. It would take more than some gradual HP loss to unnerve her.

Asuna bent her knees and jetted forward, reaching out with one hand. Chrome Falcon, presuming she was leaping for him, flashed out of the way to come and confront me again now that I’d lost momentum. I only briefly saw that Asuna’s target wasn’t Chrome Falcon, but rather Saffron Blossom. She connected one hand with the thrown off girl, instantly beginning to deal damage. Meanwhile, I took a few strategic swings at Chrome Falcon when he dove for me. The first sword connected with his wrist, but the second managed to catch his side just above the hip.

He didn’t flash away, which told me that he must have used up his ability within two uses. His special attack gauge was low. I wasn’t quite sure what my special attack was—I should have looked in the menu before jumping into a fight—but I knew mine was fuller than his and he was relying on his special attack to gain the upper hand. With the swords alone, I was capable of beating this guy.

Or so I thought. As I lunged for another volley of swings, he ducked, then leapt forward, catching me in the stomach. He ran forward with all of his might, pushing me along until I was pushed into the road. I blinked, realizing at some point he’d used that momentum to toss me. I went to dash back for him, but he jumped forward and then kicked me square in the chest, sending me back into a sign just like him. However, his kick landed me against the sharp edge, which planted itself securely in my back.

I screamed out in pain. It felt like my shoulders were being ripped in opposite directions. My vision threatened to go white. I fell to the ground. The shock my body was feeling told me not to get up. We’d both landed a few hits on the other two—they must have been used to the pain sensation by now. Asuna likely was handling it better than I was. She’d jumped right into the Underworld and was impaled over and over and over again as she fought. I’d felt pain in my last big battle, too, but I sometimes wondered how Asuna did it without screaming out in pain.

Lifting my head up, I strained my neck over to see Asuna overpowering Saffron Blossom. The kick that Chrome Falcon had given me apparently charged up his special attack gauge enough to have him try and blink over to Asuna. She wasn’t protecting her back. His kick had done more damage to me than Asuna’s electrical passive skill had done to him. If he landed a solid blow on her, we’d be at the disadvantage. As it stood, Saffron Blossom and I both had about half of an HP bar, Chrome Falcon had two-thirds of his, and Asuna was almost at full.

“Not on my watch!” I shouted.

Forcing myself to fight past the pain, I tapped into my reaction speed back from SAO to fly forward and try to catch Chrome Falcon as he appeared behind Asuna. I used the ground to slide into place with my back against hers, surprising him as I curved around him. He didn’t slow his approach, clearly deciding he’d rather land a blow on me than risk not taking away one any HP. I crossed the swords in front of my chest to form an X and let out a scream as his foot hit them dead center.

The impact made me slide a bit closer to Asuna. I gritted my teeth and fought against his power. He might have had physics on his side, but I had years of experience. This fighter likely was just a kid. Even if he was a level two in this game, I had over four years’ worth of gaming experience logged in VR. He could try to beat me. But today wasn’t his day. I thrust forward with everything I had and then instinct took over. I pulled myself back in the opening I had and then leapt forward.

“STARBURST…STREAM!”

There was no such move in this game. My arms remembered for me. My body knew this movement like it knew how to walk or drive. Chrome Falcon was powerless as my arms flew at him and my swords took chunks of his HP away. One swing took his left arm off. The next removed his right. When the swings stopped coming, he slumped to the ground, defeated. I turned on my heel to help Asuna, but I stopped, gazing at her and shaking my head.

“I hate I missed that,” I said. “That looks brutal. You fried the poor girl.”

Asuna gave me a look that told me to shut up.

“Good…game...newbies,” a voice behind me said.

I turned back to Chrome Falcon and gave him a nod.

“You two are a good team,” I said.

He nodded his head as he lay on the pavement, letting the clock run out.

“We’re connected, just like you two,” he said. “I just hope we become as close as you are some day.”

All I could do was laugh and nod. This kid had no idea that we were adults in a long-term relationship. Asuna and I had been partners since we were teens. The guy on the ground in front of me was probably in elementary school, based on what Kikuoka had told us. But these two had given us a fair fight. It was only kind to give them our all right back at them. As the clock ran out, points were given to us and Asuna and I slipped back into the real world. I felt the pressure of her hand in mine next to me again and squeezed it.

“You really beat the hell out of a little kid, didn’t you, Asuna?” I said, chuckling.

I felt her other hand whack me in the chest.

“Kirito!” she exclaimed. “Don’t say things like that!”

I laughed and rolled over to pull her into my arms. I didn’t want to admit that the lingering thought of the pain in Brain Burst made me feel a bit stressed out. So, I just clung to her, cuddled up against her, while I let my stress disappear. She shook her head. I felt her plant a kiss on my cheek.

“What’s the matter, Kirito?” she asked. “Tired?”

Humming, I shook my head. I tilted my head just enough to slip my lips into hers. I ran my hand down her side and let it rest on the side of her belly. Something felt different. I picked my head up and looked down at where my hand was. There was a slight curve to her abdomen that I hadn’t noticed before. I spread my fingers out over her belly. She laughed at me.

“What?” I said.

She reached her hand up and played with my hair a little bit.

“You’re just cute,” she said. “Did you want to see the baby?”

I turned my attention to her.

“Hmm?”

Asuna smiled up at me.

“I have an appointment for an ultrasound soon,” she said. “Would you like to come with me and see our baby?”

Something inexplicable and exciting bubbled up in my chest. I couldn’t even get words out of my mouth. I just wrapped my arms back around her, falling back into the bed, and kissed her in my excitement. She giggled.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said.

I smiled and cuddled up to her again. My heart raced in my chest. We were going to get to see our baby. The day couldn’t come fast enough. All we had to do now was wait—and keep gathering points to get paid.


End file.
